Research In Motion (RIM) announced today new and enhanced tools for developing web applications for BlackBerry smartphones. The tools include a new Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse and the BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2. These tools are part of a complete portfolio of BlackBerry developer tools for web and Java development and a set of APIs that enable developers to create a variety of mobile applications that connect BlackBerry smartphone users to the information of the web. The BlackBerry application platform also incorporates significant advantages, including real-time push technology, security and efficient data compression and network bandwidth utilization, allowing developers to deliver optimized applications on the platform. The BlackBerry Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse - available today at www.blackberry.com/developers/webeclipse, is a new plug-in that allows developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry smartphones within the Eclipse 3.4 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can debug and profile Internet/intranet web pages displaying HTML and CSS content in addition to more rich internet applications using AJAX, Silverlight, PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, JSP, and Python.

BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2 available today at www.blackberry.com/developers/webvisualstudio and provides an all-in-one tool for developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry smartphones within the Visual Studio 2008 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can create Internet/intranet web pages or more complex, rich Internet applications using AJAX and ASP.Net.

Both tools feature BlackBerry smartphone simulators for testing and debugging projects, and web application profiling for visibility into data traffic, load time and use of web based content, including elements such as images, CSS, JavaScript, HTML and objects.

RIM supports the BlackBerry developer community through a variety of means including: